The anti-type VII collagen ELISA available from MBL recognises epitopes for autoantibodies in both the NC1 and NC2 domains and can specifically diagnose EBA patients with anti-type VII collagen autoantibodies. In addition, Kurei et al*, have shown that this ELISA reacts only with EBA sera and not with sera from bullous pemphigoid patients.

EBA and bullous pemphigoid are similar in terms of clinical symptoms, but the diseases are sometimes different in therapy, EBA cases often require high doses of systemic corticosteroids and a wide variety of immunosuppressants. Therefore it is important to distinguish EBA from bullous pemphigoid. The NC1 and NC2 ELISA from MBL is more clinically relevant than the NC1 ELISA currently employed in many clinics and is useful in the diagnosis of EBA patients.